November Stuff

November, as usual, has been a busy month. Unfortunately, I haven't had my camera out much...I don't know whats wrong with me!!

My beautiful sister-in-law, Jen's baby shower was this month. The shower was beautiful and we had lots of yummy food. I am so excited for her and TJ to be having a sweet little baby boy...my first nephew! I crocheted the cutest little baby blanket for him. I think this is my most favorite blanket I have made yet!And of course, Thanksgiving was this week. My bro-in-law and sister-in-law were in town to celebrate so I was able to spend lots of time with them this week. I love to be able to spend time with them and their 4 beautiful girls! For whatever reason, I never had my camera out the whole time they were here...sad day for me! But we had a great time with them and were able to enjoy 2 fabulous Thanksgiving feasts! (And yes, one more tomorrow!) I just love this time of year and being able to spend time with loved ones.

Also this month, my little bro and his fiancee went through the temple. It was so nice to be in the temple with my family and to be there with Sam and Robin. They are getting married in just 2 weeks! I'm so excited to have Robin be a part of my family.

Birthday and pumpkins

Once again, I know I am overdue! Last month I celebrated my 26th birthday. Birthdays now seem to last for about a month because I get to celebrate with all of my family and it gets so spread out. Chris and I always go to Texas Roadhouse for my bday and for the last few years our friends Katie and Jeff have joined us with their 2 sweet kiddos. The food was delicious and I definitely over-indulged!

This is Chris and I in the car waiting for Katie and Jeff. Chris gets so annoyed with me and the camera! But I don't really mind :) Here is Trevor and his super cute "say cheese" smile!

And here he is pretending to not hear me saying, "say cheese!"
Here I am on the birthday saddle with the kids. They decided they needed a turn if I was getting a turn on it.

And me by myself. I think Chris's hand was in the way of the flash but you still get the idea. (I know these pictures are all out of order but I don't care enough to fix it.)

I'm making a totally goofy face but I was laughing pretty hard on the saddle.

Here's the whole gang! I can't get enough of that cheese face!

Me and my sexy hub!

Katie and Jeff

Me and the cutie, Bella!

The following Sunday I went to my parents house to celebrate. My oldest brother and I share a birthday and my sisters birthday is just 2 days after ours. Its almost a holiday in our family so we celebrate with turkey dinner and all the fixins! It was a super yummy dinner and of course a great time. I didn't get a ton of pictures that night but here are a few.

We were playing with the timer on my camera and got a few pretty funny ones. Here's a prime example!

This wasn't the timer but I have to say its one of my new all time favs!

This needs no words!

He doesn't always cooperate with the camera but he was on this day. I just love this guy!

I don't know why there aren't more of my fam, but I promise they were there! I uploaded these from a different computer about a week ago so I must have missed a few of them. Oops! Maybe I will add a few more later.

The next week we carved pumpkins with Chris's family and had a great time. Here they are all lit up.

Doesn't Jen have such a cute pregger belly?! Love it!

I also celebrated my birthday this past weekend with my mom-in-law, Laurie and Jen and TJ and didn't get any pictures. It was such a great time though and again, delicious food! Thank you everyone who made my birthday so great! I'm so lucky to have such amazing family and friends. I don't know what I would do without all of them. I love you all so much!

Sometimes you have to laugh at yourself

I'm sure we have all heard that when we do something dumb or embarrassing that we should just laugh at ourselves......and that's exactly what I did this morning! For the last month or so, my good friend Katie and I have been riding bikes together. This morning we were riding and this stupid car was following right behind us and just wouldn't pass us! so I kept trying to get closer and closer to the edge of the curb until I was just maybe a few inches away. I looked back (ya, real smart to look back when you're on a bike) to see where the car was and where Katie was and then it happened! My bike wheel hit the edge of the curb just enough to totally knock me off my bike! Yep, and 25 years old, I still can't seem to ride a bike without falling! Luckily I just fell into some grass and the only thing hurt was my ego. To make things worse, I had just passed by a girl from my ward with her 3 kids, so they saw the whole thing. I definitely got a good laugh out of it though. Katie and I were laughing about it for almost the whole time after that. I'm so glad she was there to witness it. And I hope you all can get some sort of joy from my little mishap.



In other news, I finally got into a nursing program, YAY!!! I will be starting in January at Gateway Community College. I am so excited, nervous, scared, happy and overwhelmed all rolled into one. I know it is going to be so awesome but the next 2 years are going to be extremely busy for me....but totally worth it. I have been on a waiting list for a year and a half already and haven't even really taken any classes since last summer. So now I have to just jump right back in and hopefully I will get my school groove back quickly. So I apologize in advance.....if you thought I didn't update enough already, just wait and see how bad it gets once January hits!



Also, Chris and I were called to serve in the Gila Bend branch in our stake. Chris is the 2nd counselor in the branch presidency and I am the primary president. Even though we have only been out there for about a month, we already love it and are loving the members there. I have felt the spirit more strongly in my life and can feel Chris and I growing closer to each other and progressing more spiritually. I have felt both humbled and overwhelmed by this calling. We are both so grateful for this opportunity to serve!

Well, if you made it through all that wordiness, congrats! And sorry for the lack of pictures. Maybe I will get my camera out so next time you all will have something more interesting to look at.

Utah trip

For the 4th of July, my father in law took us and Jen and TJ to Utah to celebrate with Stew, Robyn and the girls. We had such a great time and it was so nice to get out of this heat and cool off for a few days. And, even nicer to be with family! We did some shopping, eating, watched and lit off FirEwOrKs and a little bit of relaxing. It was so fun to be with family and I wish it could have been a few days longer....maybe next year. Thanks to everyone who made it such a fun trip! My pictures got all out of order and I have no desire to fix it or label most of them so just enjoy and be grateful that there are so many. (And yes, be jealous of all the cute nieces I have!!!)

This has to be one of my favs...boys will be boys!!! (Notice the church manual in the corner.) Yep, they are trying to make one big rocket out of several small ones.

These next few are of Robyn drawing with sparklers. It took quite a few trys to get these but I think they are pretty cool!

How cute is my HUBBY?!?!?

And I will leave you with a video, but let me explain first. Several visits ago, I started rolling up my nieces in blankets not realizing how much they would love it. Now, every time I see them, they want me to roll them up and then they all act like babies. Its actually pretty funny. I try to roll them up so tight that they can't move, and they still LOVE IT!!

Where were you.....?

Where were you ten years ago?

Me? I was on the front page of the East Valley Tribune!

Yep, my cute 15-year old self was struttin' my stuff on the front page. I was a lifeguard at the time so that's me at the top of the slide showing off my cute body. Yes, for those of you who don't believe me, I used to be tan AND skinny....here's my proof! I know it doesn't look like it from the picture, but I actually was working. Without me telling those kids when they could go down the slide, who knows what would have happened to them! If they were anything like us lifeguards were, they probably would have gone in groups/chains and probably got hurt.....ahhhh, memories! Hope you all get to remember something fun from your own ten-years-ago!

PS, thanks to my raptuously beautiful sister, Theresa, for holding on to this and finding it a few weeks ago. It was so much fun to see and look back at! Love you tons!

Date Night!!!

Mexico Continued......

Our second stop was Mazatlan. We took a cab from our boat to the main part of town. Here is a picture of Chris sitting in the front of the cab. In the background, you can see the radio in the glove box that I'm pretty sure was stolen! The driver kept it locked even while he was driving and only unlocked it when he was changing the song!

I don't know why I always feel the need to make super excited smiles in all my pictures, I end up with pictures like this....
After we were dropped off, we found a place to rent ATVs and rode through the jungle and on the beach.

And I had to get a picture of this! Oh, Canada!!!

Here we are enjoying our lunch.......

.....and the coolest waiter EVER!

We planned on spending the rest of our time on the beach, then TJ started talking to a guy who sailed us to Deer Island. (I think the island he took us to is what you see in the background of this picture.)

I was so scared about my camera being out while we were on the sail boat, but it survived and we managed to get a few pictures.

I LOVE this picture of Chris swimming!!!

And I love how Jen always makes fun of TJ for trying to get in the background of other people's pictures, but it looks like he has rubbed off on her!

Here we are that night at dinner, with our awesome servers!

Our final stop was Puerto Vallarta. We split up from Jen and TJ and ended up at this beautiful resort. The first time I pulled out my camera to take a picture I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't turn on. Then I realized that my battery was still in our stateroom being charged. I was so sad that I had forgot to grab it! So the only picrures I got were later, when we met back up with Jen and TJ. So here is my one picture.

And now back to the ship. Here is dinner that night. I seriously don't know why I try to take funny face pictures. They always turn out hideous!

The last few days we pretty much just hung out and relaxed. The boat got pretty rocky and Chris even ended up sick one morning. It was pretty funny to watch everyone stumbling around though!

Here is Chris before he got sick, so still pretty happy.

We went out of the side of the boat to watch the waves but its really hard to tell in the picture.

Here we are before dinner on the night of our anniversary.

These last few are just a few random pictures that I liked.

Yes we are at the casino but I promise I didn't gamble at all!

And here we are back on dry land and SO SAD to be heading back to reality!

Isn't that face so sad looking?

So there you go! I know it took me over a month to finally finish all of this but at least its done now. I still can't believe Chris and I have been married for 5 years! I don't know how we made it here so fast and yet, I can hardly remember my life without him. I am so grateful for Chris and the amazing husband he is but more importantly for him being my very best friend in the whole world! As I was laying in bed trying to fall asleep last night, I was thinking about life and how truly lucky I am. I know I don't have the nicest house or car and I definitely don't have a money tree but I know that what we have is pretty special. Even with all the things he does that drive me crazy, and all the bickering we do back and forth, being sealed to Chris was the best thing I have ever done and I wouldn't trade that for anything! I hate to get all mushy but I think its important not only to say, but to write it down every now and then. Chris, I love you more than you know and thank you for all that you do!!!